Redline Challenge: tips and tricks for shooting 'light in the dark'

Shooting in darkness may seem daunting, but it's a challenge that Lorenz Holder relishes. The Canon Ambassador and Redline Challenge mentor is renowned for his fine-art style sports shots, but it's often a location that inspires him as much as the action. He gives careful consideration to what time of day and year would suit a scene best, and regularly opts for low-light conditions because of the extra control it gives him.

There are all sorts of approaches you could try when tackling the Light in the Dark Redline Challenge. Here, Lorenz shares three of his favourite techniques, to inspire your creativity and help elevate your low-light images.

Sunset is a great time for photography because it adds interest and colour to your images, but you'll need to set up well in advance as the light won't stay the same for long. You also need to be flexible. "Look for the right weather and adapt your shooting plan to suit the conditions," Lorenz advises. "Many times I've set out to do a recce of a location, but the sunset ended up being perfect on the day. You have to shoot it right away or you'll miss it."

To give your low-light action images a standout, almost surreal effect, consider blending flash with a slow shutter speed. The result is a striking image that not only freezes your subject, but also captures any movement as a blur. The underlying technique is similar to shooting a flash-lit subject at sunset – the exposure of the subject is controlled by the flash power, aperture setting and ISO value, while the shutter speed governs both the brightness of the background and how much movement is captured.

"You don't freeze action with the shutter speed, as you would during the day, you freeze the action with the flash," explains Lorenz. "And then, because of the longer exposure time, you get more ambient light. You control how much you want to show in the background with the shutter speed, so if you want to reveal more detail, you can expose a little longer."

Second-curtain sync flash, when the flash fires at the end of a long exposure, is popular for action photography because it creates a blurred trail behind the flash-lit subject rather than in front, giving a more natural-looking result. However, Lorenz recommends sticking with first-curtain flash with longer exposures because you will be able to time the point at which the subject is captured with more precision. "I want to freeze the action when I push the shutter button," he says. "If this happens as the second curtain is closing, then I have no control because I don't know where the athlete will be when the flash fires."

A tripod is essential for keeping the background sharp during a long exposure, but Lorenz likes to attach his camera to one regardless of the shutter speed he's using. "I know that I can handhold the camera in low light, but when you're shooting action it's easy to accidentally miss your framing. So I really try to get everything locked off at the start."

To achieve an exposure longer than 30 seconds, you'll need to use your camera's Bulb setting – look for the B on the mode dial, or select Manual mode and scroll through the shutter speeds until you reach 'BULB'.

Whichever technique you try, Lorenz suggests that you keep an open mind and think about the different techniques you could use to unlock a scene's potential. "Photography is a little bit like cooking," he says. "You have your big, trusted bag of techniques, but occasionally you think, 'Oh yeah, that would be perfect,' and experiment with new stuff. You need to try to understand the potential of a scene and then use the lighting to adjust the recipe. I think cooking is a good comparison."